U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,163 describes various N,N'-disubstituted 2-naphthaleneethanimidamide compounds and their pharmaceutically-acceptable salts as displaying central nervous system activity. The compounds are particularly useful as antidepressants and antianxiety agents. The active compounds were prepared by reacting 2-naphthylacetonitrile with a preselected primary amine and primary ammonium ion. Alternately, the compounds were prepared by the reaction of the corresponding substituted naphthylacetamide with a trialkyloxonium fluoroborate to prepare the N-alkyl substituted arylnitrilium fluoroborate salt. This was followed by the reaction of the fluoroborate salt with a primary alkylamine. Neither method of preparing the compounds was satisfactory for the production of large batches of material for commercial purposes.